1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to the art of pneumatic cleaning devices, such as vacuum cleaners, blowers and the like and, more particularly, to a versatile attachment for use with vacuum cleaners, blowers and the like.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
There have been numerous attachments proposed in the past for use with different types of pneumatic cleaning devices. For example, it has been heretofore been proposed to provide a wet/dry vacuum attachment that defines a rigid tubular member that includes a curved end portion that enables the attachment to be used in cleaning rain gutters. Such prior art attachments are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,623,234, 5,056,187 and 5,195,209. It is also known to provide an elongated, substantially linear tubular attachments for use on blowers for leaves and other debris. Finally, it is commonplace to provide flexible tubular attachments for other types of cleaning devices, such has household vacuums.
Each of these known types of attachments for pneumatic cleaning devices is specifically designed for a particular purpose with respect to a given cleaning device. For this reason, the rigid tubular attachments evince certain desired characteristics that are not found in the flexible tubular attachments and vice-versa. Therefore, these known attachments lack versatility due to their structure. For example, the rigid tubular attachments disclosed in the above-identified '187 and '209 Patents enable the attachments to retain a desired curvature in order to effectively be used to clean gutters. However, these rigid attachments would provide inferior results to a flexible tubular attachment when cleaning in other environments, such as around varying shaped objects and in tight places.
Therefore, there exists a need in the art for an attachment for a pneumatic cleaning device which is versatile such that it can be effectively used in cleaning environments which require a rigid tubular member, as well as environments which dictate the need for a flexible tubular cleaning attachment.